Twinkle, Twinkle
by vapourtrailreads
Summary: The twinkle game wasn't as pointless as it seemed. Slight AU. Written for Cass - THC Pre-Round Challenge


A/N:

Written for my amazing housemate Cass XD (I own nothing except plot)

Done for Pre-Round Challenge, The Houses Competition Year 4

Prompt: Remus Lupin

**Twinkle, Twinkle**

"Oi, Moony," Sirius said, clicking his fingers in front of Remus's nose. "Wanna play a game?"

Remus blinked. "Sorry, what?"

Sirius rolled his cloudy grey eyes, lips perking up in his iconic smirk. "I asked you if you wanted to play a _game_. Merlin, you can be such an airhead, Moon."

Remus smiled sheepishly, retreating a little into the shade. It was one of those exceedingly hot days with no clouds and white heat, and the yellow sun shone unfiltered and blindingly bright. James was down by the lake with Lily, who for some reason had rescinded all her earlier oaths and agreed to go out with their fellow Marauder. Peter was nowhere to be seen - Remus guessed that he was holed up in the Gryffindor dorms doing homework or something decidedly not illegal. Sirius's influence only extended so far for some.

"_Moony,_" sighed Sirius, his drawl brimming with exaggerated patience. "You're drifting." He was bracing his elbow on his knee, leaning his cheek on his palm, ringlets of black hair bracketing his face like an ebony painting frame. "Seriously, _what_ has gotten _into_ you?"

"Sorry," he murmured, shutting down the mutinous little voice protesting in the back of his head. "I was..."

_Distracted, _his mind-voice whispered. Distracted by his best friend's cloak splayed around him in a crooked circle, by the slender callused fingers playing with their owner's wand, by the annoyingly perfect teeth half-bared by those annoyingly perfect-

Yeah, distracted was the word. He cleared his throat.

"What do you have in mind then, Padfoot?" asked Remus, redirecting his gaze to a loose thread on Sirius's robes.

Without warning, Sirius scooted a few feet closer, deploying himself smack in front of the other boy.

Every single cell in Remus's brain went dark. Blood was pounding furiously through his temples like drums at a Muggle rock concert. He remembered Sirius inviting him to one the year before. He also remembered refusing and cursing himself tenfold afterwards.

"Okay, so I'm going to do a number of twinkles and then you'll tell me how many stars there are. Got it?" Not waiting for a reply, he moved his hand in a random formation in front of hin, opening and closing his fingers like tulip petals. "Twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle," he rattled off, seemingly oblivious to Remus's silent panic attack. Apparently satisfied, he folded his fingers into a tent-like steeple. "How many stars were there?"

The jolt was taking a ridiculously long time to wear off - blood was still singing in his ears like rain. _Get a grip, Remus. _"Huh?"

"That was two stars." Sirius's grin was almost sadistic. Bloody Padfoot, he might hex him if he didn't like him as much as he did. "Right then, we'll keep doing this until you figure it out."

"What? No!" But Sirius had already begun twinkling.

"Twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle, how many stars were there?"

"I don't - know-"

"Five stars," Sirius told him, unsuccessfully suppressed laughter leaking into his voice. Remus groaned, secretly grateful for the excuse to look away.

It was in Year Four that he'd realised that his feelings for Sirius were not entirely platonic, and three years later he was still at square one, save that said feelings had increased on what could be considered an exponential level.

Remus resisted the growing urge to bolt. How had he gotten into this state? Him, a Prefect, the most collected and responsible of his friends, getting thrown off balance by the school's resident heart-throb. Now he couldn't even look the bloke in the eye properly.

Wait…

"Let's try that again."

Remus raised his head, locking his gaze on his best friend's eyes. Sirius breathed in sharply, but raised his hands all the same.

"Twinkle, twinkle," began Sirius, but Remus's mind was elsewhere, focusing on the flecks in Sirius's eyes where the grey was slightly darker than the rest as he blinked once, twice.

"Okay," Sirius said, dropping his hands (was it just him reading too much into it or did he sound a little breathless?). "How many stars?"

Remus paused. "Three."

It was as if someone had struck a match on a pile of old parchment; Remus could have sworn that the flash of light around them coincided with Sirius's smile. "You got it, Moony!" he exclaimed, ecstatic, bringing his hands together in glee. "About bloody time."

He ducked his head away in an attempt to hide his smile. "Yeah, I did."

Sirius grinned again, but this time it sparked something in Remus, a flicker of daring, and he turned his head back, not wanting to lose his nerve.

"Actually that's inaccurate, considering there are only two stars out right now."

Sirius's confused face was even more annoying than his flirt face, Remus decided. His eyes were opened wide and innocent like in his dog form, his lips puckered in a pout. "I don't understand a word of what you just said."

"I'll tell you if you go out with me," Remus blurted before his mind could back out of his decision. As an afterthought he schooled his face into a hopeful grin. He hoped.

Merlin, he wished he had a mirror. He probably looked like a flustered mess.

The look on Sirius's face wasn't confusion, or humour. It was nothing short of pure shock.

"You… want me to go out with you? Like, on a… a date. A _date_ date?"

A wave of horror zigzagged through Remus. _Oh, Paracelsus, he's not…_

"You darned _jerk_," Sirius said, hitting Remus lightly on the arm. "You should have let me ask you first."

It dawned on him then, what had just happened. "Wait… you'll go out with me?" he yelped, disbelieving.

Sirius's laugh was making his heart jump into his throat. "Yes, I _will_ go out with you next Hogsmeade weekend." He tilted his head the other way, and the black curls swayed along with it. "You'd think that I'd have done something about it after this much time, but I _do_ exceed expectations, don't I?"

That stopped him short. "What?"

This close, he could see Sirius's careless grin hardening into the protective facade he used around his family. "I knew I liked you. Since Year Four. I should have been the one to do the asking, since you're an awkward bean who can't make a proper speech to a deck of Exploding Snap cards. But I didn't."

He registered the abrupt change in mood. "Why?" he asked, not prying, just there to listen.

Sirius flicked his hair out of his face in a manoeuvre that would have had the girls rushing off to the library to look up love potions. He was holding himself ramrod straight, not the way that Sirius Black the troublemaker did, but in the detached, formal manner of the House of Black. "I didn't think you felt that way." His tone was matter-of-fact, emotionless, as if he didn't like thinking about it.

"Well, you were wrong," he said, and Sirius snapped out of his trance, looking at him as if a veil had been torn off his eyes.

Then the familiar smirk swept back on, and everything was back to normal, albeit a little bit lighter.

"Next Hogsmeade weekend?" Sirius asked, the excitement evident in the nonchalant slant of his shoulders and the crook of his mouth.

Remus smiled.

"Next Hogsmeade weekend it is."

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

Credit to Stef for the twinkle game haha

god i suck at romance pls review and tell me how i can improve aa tq for reading hope you liked it


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